Letter to the Hawkesbury Gazette 29 July, 2015

Like you, in the views expressed in the Gazette front page and your editorial on 22nd July re the CAWB Thompson Square protest group, I admire the dedication and commitment of those people.

Unfortunately the reporting lacks balance and experience.

However, they are misguided and misrepresenting the true facts to naïve Sydney visitors to Windsor on Sundays.

Dramatic statements are being made that Thompson Square is being bulldozed and destroyed.

The only bulldozing that will take place will be filling in the ugly gash of road that cut the Square in half in the 1930’s. No heritage building will be touched and the Square will be beautiful and returned to its original size. The bridge street road that the new bridge will link up to is where the original road to the wharf and ferry were 200 years ago. It already bypasses the town of Windsor which is on the southernside of the Square.

I was a resident of the Peninsular of North Windsor when the silent majority voted unanimously for Option 2 proposed by the RTA five years ago. The blocking of the new bridge by CAWB has meant that the cost of the bridge has doubled. The money may be spent in another part of the state if we hold it up anymore.

Any long term Hawkesbury resident knows that North Richmond (8.5 metres) abd Windsor Bridge (7 metres) cut off the evacuation route of the 27,000 people west of the river from Wilberforce to North Richmond, Grose Vale and Kurrajong in medium height floods.

The original proposed new Windsor Bridge would allow access to the Western residents to: their work and businesses, plus farmers of urgent food supplies to get to markets, with floods up to under 10 metres

Once the bridges are closed these people have to travel via Mount Victoria and Penrith. The Bells Line of Road often has landslips during heavy rain which block the road. No escape!

There are no major hospitals, ambulance or police facilities on the western side of the river for these 27,000 residents.

It is most unfair and selfish of CAWB to be holding up such an important community project.

It is about time that the enormous silent majority of the Hawkesbury community rose up and told CAWB to get out of the way and let construction of a new higher level bridge commence urgently. We have had enough of this nonsense.

With the current premier of NSW having approval to sell poles and wires to enable the building of urgent infrastructure projects that are well overdue like schools, hospitals, railways and large overdue projects like a high level bridge from Richmond to North Richmond and a high flood free adjoining road joining Putty Road, by-passing Windsor, well before Thompson Square.

Our member for Hawkesbury, Dominic Perrottet MP as a cabinet minister is actively supporting a flood mitigation project due for release in September.